The Invention of Air

Best-selling author Steven Johnson recounts - in dazzling, multidisciplinary fashion - the story of the brilliant man who embodied the relationship between science, religion, and politics for America's Founding Fathers. The Invention of Air is a title of world-changing ideas wrapped around a compelling narrative, a story of genius and violence and friendship in the midst of sweeping historical change that provokes us to recast our understanding of the Founding Fathers.

Only if the friend were a science geek that had a penchant for history.

What other book might you compare The Invention of Air to and why?

Others have compared it to the Disappearing Spoon, but I find this to be slightly more based upon the method and history of the scientist than of the quaint anecdotal stories from the evolution of the Periodic table.

Would you be willing to try another one of Mark Deakins’s performances?

I don't believe so.

Was The Invention of Air worth the listening time?

It was, overall. I would advise others to make the effort to wade through some of the several lagging portions of the story.

The Folklore of Discworld

Most of us grow up having always known to touch wood or cross our fingers, and what happens when a princess kisses a frog or a boy pulls a sword from a stone, yet sadly, some of these things are now beginning to be forgotten. Legends, myths, and fairy tales: our world is made up of the stories we told ourselves about where we came from and how we got there. It is the same on Discworld, except that beings which on Earth are creatures of the imagination - like vampires, trolls, witches, and possibly, gods - are real, alive and in some cases kicking on the Disc.

This was an amazing study of folklore and of all os us in a comically Pratcehettesque manner. The study of the isms of Diskworld in juxtaposition of our own human beliefs of the things we all know but don't understand.

Dodger

A storm. Rain-lashed city streets. A flash of lightning. A scruffy lad sees a girl leap desperately from a horse-drawn carriage in a vain attempt to escape her captors. Can the lad stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not, because he's...Dodger. Seventeen-year-old Dodger may be a street urchin, but he gleans a living from London's sewers, and he knows a jewel when he sees one. He's not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl - not even if her fate impacts the most powerful people in England.

Peter and the Starcatchers: The Starcatchers, Book 1

In an evocative and fast-paced adventure on the high seas and on a faraway island an orphan boy named Peter and his mysterious new friend, Molly, overcome bands of pirates and thieves in their quest to keep a fantastical secret safe and save the world from evil.

This story dragged in all aspects. It easily had five or six reasonable ending points. The action sequences were all entirely contrived and exceptionally trite overall. We bought this for a family road trip, by an hour and half in to it the kids were begging to turn it off, and I joined the chorus another forty-five minutes in. My wife held strong and followed through, we all regret that decision and wish we could just get our several hours back from Peter and the Pirates.

Would you ever listen to anything by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson again?

No, absolutely not.

What three words best describe Jim Dale’s performance?

Wonderfully richly voiced

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment after disapointment

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